Apple has a market capitalization just north of $600 billion today, but just 20 years ago, General Electric could have had the company for a mere $2 billion, former NBCUniversal chief Bob Wright said Thursday.

The opportunity arose during a meeting with then Apple CEO Michael Spindler in 1996, Wright told CNBC's "Squawk Box." According to Wright, Spindler broke down in the middle of his presentation, lamenting that the stock was "killing him" and "the investors are on his back, and he can't get this thing rolling."

"The consensus in the room was we can't do anything with this. This is way outside of our game. We were not a Silicon Valley company," Wright said.